WEES seminar – Dr. Detmer Sipkema

Date: 19 September 2019
Speaker: Dr. Detmer Sipkema,Wageningen University and Research, Laboratory of Microbiology

Time: 16:00
Venue: Orion, C1040

Seminar – Deep impact: how sponges, their microbes and metabolites change with depth

Marine sponges are leading organisms for discovery of novel bioactive compounds from nature. Yet, factors involved in shaping their microbial community and chemical potential are poorly understood. The large majority of studies are from shallow water, while the microbiota and bioactivity of deeper sponges are largely mare incognita. Here we studied the impact of depth on the prokaryotic communties and metabolomes in marine sponges. For all sponge species studied, we find that microbiome and metabolite composition vary with depth and up to 29% of the variation in a microbiome and up to 17% of the variation in a metabolome were attributed to depth. In addition, by investigating known bioactive compounds as well as newly identified compounds underlying the observed depth pattern, we were able to generate hypotheses about deep-sea ecology and putative bacterial producers of these compounds.

There will be free drinks with the speaker after the seminar in The Spot!

 


Thursday, September 19, 2019
16:00
WUR – Orion
Bronland 1, Wageningen